What I research on: Meaning of handmade magazines despite the dark times

The first number of "Yakatsu", which means "harsh land" in Japanese that was taken from poem of Chinese painter Ni San (1301-74)

Between 1931 and 1945, we call this age "15 years war" or "Asian-Pacific War" in Japanese history. During this age, especially for 8 years after Second Sino-Japanese War that occurred in
1937, freedom of speech was harshly suppressed, which means not only that we could neither publish something nor hold a political meeting but that our consciences were exposed in fear.

If I speak what I truly think about or serious opinion on the society,

I will be arrested

and rather,

I will be ignored by everyone and lose space to live as I am not "Japanese"...

So we lost the place or the time to express and share something serious in heart.

Not only nation but our society itself deprived us of breath of "expression".

Under such society, our minds were literally dyed dark.

Just those days, my young grandmother and grandfather formed a small group with their family or cousins.

They wrote their own poems, novels, essays on philosophy, music or everyday life, took pictures, and made other strange creations.

Then they collected manuscripts together, edited them,

and formed handmade magazines named "Yakatsu".

And more they managed to meet and read together.

I never forget how I was shocked and moved when my grandmother showed these magazines:

It appeared to me that each page of these old handmade magazines had a kind of light amid the dark times.

Since then I have looked for similar handmade magazines of this age (some are partly published), and researched on some other interesting handmade magazines a little widely in 1920 - 40's in
Japan (part of this research will be published as papers), as I have researched on some philosophical theories, mainly on Hannah Arendt, in order to make clear the historical meaning of such
magazines.

However the society was harsh to us or the world seemed dull,

those who held a light in heart began something new or "cultural".

If such facts were left to us, I want to seek for the meaning of "fact",

which might give some hints to our courage.

26 MARCH 2015

Zaiya Takahashi

Papers and Other Writings

Kenji Miyazawa and Motokichi Takahashi: Evidence of the exchange of poetry works

(2018, Japanese)

The Miyazawa Kenji Association Journal, vol.56, pp.13-15.

Kenji Miyazawa and Motokichi Takahashi: An attempt to connect them with music

(2017, Japanese)

Kenji Studies, vol.4, pp.212-220.

Reinterpretation of Art in the Era of Mental Trauma: The Example of Georges Rouault